As I am sure you know this is Halifax Bank of Scotland, one of our finest UK financial institutions (I hope no one thinks I am being serious). Well recently I was able to extract £125 from them which they had ripped off from me when I paid off my mortgage last year.

If any one reading this has re-mortgaged or paid off a mortgage in the last few years then the thieves who are the UK commercial banking sector have almost certainly ripped you off too. It's all to do with them inflating the charges to end your mortgage with them, in my case from £100 to £225, hence the sweet little cheque for £125. You can find out how to get your money back here.

But don't wait for them to do the honourable thing and pay you back the money they swindled you out of, 'cos you will be waiting for ever. You have to claim it back, it took me 2 phone calls, despite being promised the money after the first call, but two calls to get money out of a bank is not that bad I suppose!!

The good guy in this instance is HSBC who have never charged an admin exit fee.